smile
by SakuraPetal91
Summary: Smiles always were the most memorable to Keith.


Keith was restless.

He was supposed to take an afternoon nap, as Shiro advised him after he almost collapsed of exhaustion during training. However, the fact that he couldn't tell the time by just looking out a window, and that all the clocks were in Altean timing, destroyed any sleepiness and brought some homesickness.

Said homesickness requested some doodling to be made.

Keith moved to grab his sketchbook and pen, his hand itching to draw. He threw himself on the bed, and started sketching the first thing that came on his mind.

After a few minutes, on the blank page blossomed an illustration of young Shiro, smiling so happily and in such a familiar way that Keith cursed his drawing abilities when his eyes watered in the slightest.

Shiro used to be such a cheerful person before the Kerberos mission happened. Sure, he wasn't the most innocent, as Keith's strangest doodles usually spawned from the dark depths of Shiro's mind - an image of the gracious human-bird hybrid with bird head and torso and human butt and legs, birdaur as Shiro professionally named it, flashed in his already scarred mind -, but, all in all, he was the kindest, most positive person Keith has ever known.

This was already too much for his poor, sad little heart, Keith decided, so he started doodling something else.

He ended up with another earnest and happy smile - this time, however, it was Pidge who was the victim of Keith's smile-drawing spree.

Pidge's eyes were soft - a rare sight, considering how sarcastic and snarky the green paladin is - and she had a small, yet so sincere smile on her face. She was glancing down at something that Keith later decided to be Rover.

For no reason in particular, he added a barely noticeable "R.I.P." on Rover's triangular body, before deciding he wasn't going to be _that guy_ and shaded over the writing.

Pidge was Keith's favorite, right after Shiro, who had a huge nostalgic and very... fatherly factor that made him impossible to knock off the top of Keith's list of favorite people. _Sure_ , he might be a little biased because both him and the troll were fans of conspiracy theories and often shared opinions on them, but he had actual reasons to think that as well.

Him and Pidge were sarcastic and grumpy together. Yeah, he might be the grumpier of them - or, as Pidge ungracefully called him, emo -, but he still appreciated that he could be salty and have support and extra salt added.

Pidge was also impossible to ignore. She slotted herself permanently and unnoticeably into everybody's hearts like it was nothing. While when with Keith, she unleashed the salt, she also made an unbreakable and unbeatable engineering and tinkering duo with Hunk, and was a helping hand in convincing Shiro to _chill for once, for God's sake._

Chuckling into the emptiness of his room, that sometimes felt so tangible, Keith clutched his pen in his hand and continued doodling.

What came out on the next page was, surprisingly, not Hunk.

It was actually Lance.

He had a grin on his face - but not one of his stupid, exaggerated and flirty ones. His toothy smile was soft and innocent and so sincere and open, something Lance barely was sometimes, these days. His eyes were squinting by the sheer impact of the happiness he seemed to feel, his shoulders seemingly shaking and one hand reaching to cover his face.

Keith stopped for a second to really look at what he's drawn, and wondered when was the last time he saw Lance smiling that widely and sincerely out in the open.

Lance always was a very... competitive person. Despite everything that's happened, and _all those bonding moments_ , their rivary still was maintained, though on a less aggressive level than it used to be, back in the very beginning. Him and Lance actually worked well together, and Lance could easily keep up with his sarcasm and snarky remarks, especially when they ganged up on someone who insulted one of the team.

In comparison with their relationship, Lance and Pidge were the perfect prank duo. They called themselves the Dream Meme Team... Shiro looked so proud when he heard, that Keith felt like jumping out the nearest window. He had enough of Shiro's memes back at the Garrison.

Lance was also his go-to person when he had no idea what to draw in his free time. His ideas weren't as crazy and over the top as Shiro's, but they still had that underlying _drama_ to them that was so characteristically him.

Even though he'd never say it out loud, Lance almost was at Shiro levels of kindness and optimism.

Sighing with a smile, he continued doodling. For some reason, his next choices were Allura and Coran, smiling as if they were posing for a family picture.

Though he never bonded quite as deeply with the two, he could definitely relate to their pain of losing their family. It may have been so many years ago for him, but the memories were still fresh in his mind, no matter how much he pushed them away.

They smiled so rarely in the way Keith drew them, that it felt too personal looking at his own drawing. It wasn't that they never smiled - quite the opposite, actually. But their smiles always somehow seemed... haunted to him. Of course, his experience could never counter with the immense shock and pain that losing everyone from your own culture could bring. After all, humanity wasn't - hopefully, at least, as it feels like so much time has passed - massacrated by aliens.

Still, the fact that they could still smile at all, after everything that's happened, is more than impressive to Keith, and he greatly respected them for that.

Flipping to the next page, Keith decided: it was time to doodle the nicest and most innocent paladin.

Hunk.

There wasn't much Keith had to say about Hunk that was not a word of praise. Hunk was such a sweet person that he almost seemed unreal sometimes. Keith drew him in a characteristic pose, with his usual facial expression - that was, with a nice, sincere smile that radiated trust and always reached his soft eyes.

Hunk and Lance were their emotional support. After all, they were the legs of Voltron, weren't they? Hunk's natural kindness and honesty, paired up with Lance's lame, yet somehow funny jokes and optimism were enough to keep them all going through every fight, and when they were feeling down, sometimes Keith's awkward Lance impersonations and Shiro's jokes were enough to retaliate with all the support the legs were bringing to the team.

Hunk on his own was a great engineer with a brilliant mind, even if sometimes his emotions took over him. He thinked fast and had good strategies, and was the sweetest person Keith has ever seen in his entire life.

And while Keith may not be a very cuddly person - though Lance continuously disagrees -, but he sure loves Hunk's hugs.

"Hey Keith, I was wondering if I could- _oooh are you drawing?!_ "

Keith turned his head around and smiled in the slightest. Lance became such a constant in his room that he isn't even startled anymore when Lance waltzes without asking in his room to check what he's doing.

He scooted over to make Lance enough space to sit on the edge of his bed to giddily look at his newest drawings. He flipped over through today's doodles and hummed in total agreement at Shiro, Pidge and Rover.

"Honestly, we're all such precious babies," Lance mused under his breath, and then reached his portrait.

Biting his lip, he glanced to the side, the slightest of flushes on his face. Then, he quickly gulps and finger-guns with his cockiest grin.

"I knew I was on your mind," he winked, to which Keith chuckled, friendly punching his shoulder.

"Shut up and look at the sketchbook before I take it back."

Lance laughed and flipped the page to be met with Allura, Coran and Hunk. His wide smile faltered slightly, a thoughtful softness in his eyes as he analyzed the drawings.

After a rather anticlimatic pause, Keith was finally graced with an opinion.

"That is one accurate Hunk," Lance grinned widely, then pointed at Allura's waving hand in the drawing. "That is also one graceful-looking hand, holy pepperoni."

Keith snorted at the censored profanity and gently took the sketchbook back. A yawn unexpectedly escaped his lips; looks like his restlessness was gone. He knew a doodling session would do the trick.

Lance blinked a few times before snapping his fingers.

"Oh, right! I forgot why I came here, heh," he chuckled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "Did you take that nap Shiro asked you to?"

Keith stopped, flushing, before fidgeting and looking away. Lance tilted his head, trying to meet Keith's gaze.

"Well?"

At the lack of response, Lance sighed and rubbed the sides of his temples.

"Keith, sleep is important. You basically fell asleep during training today," he grumbled, not even bothering to meet Keith's eyes anymore.

Keith scoffed. "I _was_ going to sleep, I just..." A yawn betrayed him. "...had to draw before I lost the ideas..."

Lance's eyes softened for a moment. He raised from Keith's bed and picked up the blanket from the floor, grumbling about how Keith's 'a messy heathen', and flopped himself back in bed, this time on his back, draping the warm blanket over them.

Keith was already dozing off, mouth open in a lost reply and head barely managing to lean on his arm anymore, slowly slipping in an uncomfortable position. Lance grumbled and put Keith's head properly on the pillow, moving his arm to not look broken anymore and closing his mouth, adjusting the blanket to cover his shoulders.

"Why do you always fall asleep when I'm here?" Lance mused to himself, before slipping into a comfortable sleeping position himself. "You should really get more sleep..."

Lance fell asleep, unaware of all the blackmail photos awaiting for when he woke up and left Keith's room.


End file.
